


SamBenny Love Week April 2017

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Tagged by chapter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-04-10
Packaged: 2018-10-17 08:23:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10590162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Ficlets written for SamBenny Love Week April 2017.





	1. Day 1 - Firsts

**Author's Note:**

> Trialberculosis, Sam Behaving Badly

The first time Sam meets Benny, it’s awkward. Dean’s pissed at Sam for abandoning him to Purgatory, Sam’s grateful to have his brother back but feels like Dean’s not willing to consider what it was like for Sam, and they’re fighting. And then Sam learns that Dean’s been buddying it up with a vampire. A monster. A killer.

And Dean had the nerve to act surprised that Sam went for the machete.

Sam knew the difference between “not human” and “monster”. Lots of overlap, but not synonymous. Benny was a blind spot. Intellectually, he knew that if Dean trusted Benny, then Benny was probably not going to be a problem – and if he betrayed Dean, Dean would be the first in line to take his head off. It was just too hard looking at this vampire Dean was putting so much faith in and wondering why he couldn’t put that same faith in Sam.

The first time Sam had a civil conversation with Benny was after the mess with Elizabeth and Martin and Desmond. Against his better judgment, he listened to Dean. When he learns the truth about what’s happening in that town, he calls off Martin and goes to talk to Benny himself. It’s awkward, but it ends with an agreement.

Sam helps Benny as much as he can over the next few months, and when they discover the Bunker, Sam supports Dean’s decision to invite Benny. Benny helps support Sam through the Trials and the illnesses, helping him stay on his feet.

The first time Sam kisses Benny, it’s even more awkward than that first conversation. Benny jerks back and practically runs away. He comes back several minutes later, and Sam can smell the mouthwash. “Sam, don’t take this wrong. You didn’t misread anything, I would love to be kissin’ you right now, but I can’t. Not while you’re coughin’ blood. I can taste it, and I can’t.”

Sam felt much better about things as he cuddled into Benny’s arms. He probably should have thought of that.


	2. Day 2 - Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blood, Sam/Guilt, Benny as Therapist

Blood had become a sensitive topic for Sam. Between the blood he’d been fed as an infant and the blood he’d used to start the Apocalypse, he tried to avoid thinking about blood as much as he could. In their line of work, there was no avoiding it completely – blood sigils, blood magic, blood-drinking monsters, blood leaking out of his brother way too often.

Then Benny moved into the Bunker with them. Now one of those blood-drinking monsters was right there, and they had to keep a supply on-hand. Sam contributed, of course. He didn’t particularly want to. It wasn’t because he hated Benny anymore. He loved Benny. He just felt bad about asking Benny to drink his tainted blood.

He and Dean had just finished a round of donation when Benny came back from his run into town. He had an arrangement with a butcher for fresh animal blood. “Can I ask you something, Sam?”

Sam finished labeling the bag of his blood and turned to face Benny. “Sure. What’s up?”

“Why do you label your blood? There something special about it? Am I supposed to be avoiding it or using it first?”

Dean grabbed the blood bag out of Sam’s hands and grabbed his own. “I’ll get these put up and call Cas to come check on us.”

Sam tried to protest, but Dean was already gone. “You’re supposed to be avoiding it. Desperate enough situation, it’s better than nothing, so I donate, but my blood’s bad.”

“Haven’t noticed a difference between using yours, Dean’s, or random from the blood bank. What’s wrong with your blood? You sick?”

“No, nothing…” Sam trailed off and tried to figure out how to explain. “I know Dean told you stories about me in Purgatory. Did he tell you that my blood is part demonic?”

“No? How’d that happen?”

“Demon bled into me when I was a baby. It changed me.”

“Dean did tell me there was a time you started drinkin’ demon blood. Wish it worked that way for vampires and humans, we drink enough and we become more human.”

“Yeah. That’s gone, I went through detox, but I gave up my chance at purification. My blood’s still tainted.”

“Is it? That demon-curing ritual, you seemed pretty convinced it would work even on Crowley, and from what you said it would have if you’d gone through with the last hit. Seems to me that demon-tainted blood wouldn’t be much good for curin’ a demon.”

“Well, I had to… purify… but that wasn’t…” Sam stopped. Benny had a very good point and he couldn’t come up with an argument. His blood had worked. He’d been so close to curing Crowley and making him human again. Either the purification ritual was literal, and his blood had been cleansed, or it wasn’t, and his blood wasn’t tainted to begin with.

“I’m tellin’ you, Sam. I only know if I use your blood because you label the bag. There’s no difference in how fast or how well it lets me heal. I can’t taste anything weird in there. I think maybe you aren’t tainted at all.”

“It’s not just that easy to make me believe, you know.”

“I know. Think maybe you needed to hear it, though. You ever need to hear it again, I’ll tell you whenever you want.”


	3. Day 3 - AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sort of Major Character Death, It Happened a Long Time Ago, Suicide, Ghost Benny, College Boy Sam

It was probably crazy. Ghosts aren’t real. Once you die, your soul leaves this world. Sam could not deal with this world working any other way. There was no logical evidence for ghosts, and Sam liked things to be logical.

On the other hand, he was having a really hard time coming up with a logical explanation for why things in his room kept moving. Why he got out of the shower to find messages written in the steam on the mirror. It was a little creepy, thinking someone had been in there while he was showering, but the messages were usually sweet. “Have a good day!” “Always keep fighting!” “You are loved!” “Don’t forget to sleep tonight!” after two days running on coffee instead of sleep while preparing for finals.

The one that pushed Sam over the edge was “Why aren’t you eating?” He’d been busy and it wasn’t until the message appeared that he realized he hadn’t eaten anything more than a protein bar in three days. Sam reached a trembling finger toward the mirror and wrote back – “Forgot.” Then he called his brother and asked him to bring a pizza.

“Dean, I’m going crazy.” Sam noticed that Dean had brought a lot more than just pizza – including a salad. How long had it been since Sam last called Dean that Dean was worried enough to voluntarily buy something healthy?

Dean grinned around a mouthful of breadstick. “No you’re not. You were already there.”

“You’re an idiot. I’m being serious!” He explained the mirror messages.

“Huh. You know the history of this place, right?” Sam shook his head, so Dean continued. “Back in like the 60s, this place became famous. College boy developed a drinking problem. No story there, right? But one day he doesn’t show up to class, and his girl comes around looking for him. After two days of nothing, she manages to convince the RA or housing supervisor or whoever to let her in, and she finds him dead on the floor. No sign of a struggle, no marks on the body, everyone just assumes he got drinking and couldn’t stop, right?”

“That would be my first guess, yeah. Or he tried some other drug, I mean, you said it was the 60s.”

“Well, suspicious death of a young guy, they decide to look into it. Toxicology comes back clean. No alcohol in him at all, no other drugs, nothing to explain why he was dead. There’s a reason you can get this room so cheap, no one’s lasted in here more than six months. Lots of ‘em quit school or at least transfer.”

“Because they find uplifting messages on the mirror?”

“I dunno, man. People are crazy.”

The next morning, Sam got out of the shower to find nothing on the mirror. After classes, he went to the library and looked up the death. Benjamin Lafitte, 20 years old, death under mysterious circumstances that was never explained.

When he got home, he started running the shower and went to the mirror to write. “Benjamin?” There was no reply. He left the steam running and went to get himself some leftover pizza. “I’m eating! Don’t worry about me!”

When he got back to the bathroom, there was a response. “Benny.”

“What happened to you, Benny?”

“Poison. Self-inflicted. Couldn’t control the drinking any other way.”

“But the toxicology…”

“They were looking for drugs, not strychnine. My dad paid a lot of money to keep it that way.”

“Dean said no one ever stays here.”

“Every time I say this time I’ll behave. Every time I end up messin’ up. People freak. You’re the first one who hasn’t run.”

“They’re idiots. You’re sweet. Thanks for looking after me.”


	4. Day 4 - Misunderstandings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Angst, Kate, Evil Friends

Having Benny in the Bunker was awkward. Super awkward. Sam had gotten over his initial distrust, but then he started noticing that Benny was never there at night. Initially, he didn’t think anything of it, assuming Benny was going out to hunt animals. Then he started hearing about attacks in nearby towns – people going missing, turning up later with missing blood and no memories of where they’d been.

Sam brought it up with Dean, showing him the patterns and mentioning that the attacks happened while Benny wasn’t in the Bunker. Dean groaned and poured himself some whiskey. “We doing this again? You do remember what happened with Elizabeth and Martin and Desmond?”

“I remember. That’s why I brought it to you instead of calling someone else. Look, I don’t want to think it’s Benny either, but it fits. Help me find a better explanation.”

“Witch? Another vamp from Benny’s past? Some other bloodsucker? It ain’t Benny, man.”

“What ain’t Benny?” Benny came in from the garage.

“Sam here thinks you’re sucking down humans again. Tell him he’s wrong.”

“You’re wrong, Sam. What’s going on?”

Sam explained the disappearances again. “I don’t want to think it’s you, but…”

“It’s not me. I got an explanation for where I’m goin’. Met this werewolf who’s gone straight, locks herself away during the full moon. Wolf blood’s not as good as human, but she can heal up a lot quicker. Been drinkin’ from her. She’s donating, it ain’t hurting her much, it helps a lot.”

“Can we talk to her to confirm your story?”

“That depends. You gonna give her problems for bein’ a werewolf?”

“If she’s locked up during the full moon, she’s not hurting anyone… no, we’re not.” Sam sent Dean a challenging look, daring him to contradict. Dean didn’t.

Benny nodded and pulled out his phone. “Hey, Kate.”

“Kate?” Sam and Dean exchanged a quick look. “I think we know her.”

“Got a bit of a problem. Attacks that look like a fang, the guys I’m livin’ with want to be sure I’m not doin’ it. I told them about our arrangement and they want to talk to you.”

Sam took the phone Benny held out. “Kate?”

“Benny’s a good guy. I’m giving him my blood voluntarily. He comes here, stays here, and goes back home. He can’t be the one attacking those people. It’s not me, either.”

“Not a werewolf’s MO, and I know you don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“You do?”

“I saw the tape you left behind from when you were turned. The guy you killed, we’d have done it if you hadn’t, and it was clearly self-defense.”

“Are you Sam or Dean?”

“I’m Sam.”

“I see why Benny’s got such a crush on you.”

“What?”

“You and Dean were those FBI guys, right? You’re hot, you’re smart, and you’re a good guy.”

“No, what was… Benny what?”

Benny grabbed the phone away from Sam. “Kate, you’re evil.” He ended the call and practically ran from the room.

Dean raised an eyebrow at Sam. “The hell?”

“Kate says Benny has a crush on me.”

“Been thinking about telling you that myself. Since it seems like Benny’s not gonna do it.”

Sam got up and went after Benny. He found Benny in the garage, hiding in a car. “I used to do this at Bobby’s salvage yard, hide in a car until I was ready to deal with whatever had driven me out there. Of course, the cars there weren’t as nice as this, and turning it on and driving off was not an option.”

“Sorry. Kate didn’t…”

“Dean says she did.”

“Oh.”

“What I don’t get is why. I was a jerk to you, ruined the quiet life you built for yourself because I couldn’t bring myself to trust you… or trust Dean’s faith in you. And just now…”

“You saw fang, you knew a fang was in the area, wanted to rule out the obvious solution before digging into others. I’d’ve done the same thing.”

“Benny…”

“I’ve had this crush since before I’d ever met you, from listenin’ to Dean go on about you in Purgatory. Shouldn’t be a problem, as long as you’re willing to let it go.”

“Or… not gonna promise anything, but aside from being a vampire, you’re the kind of person I dated back in college. Sweet, smart, cute, usually a little broken in some way.”


	5. Day 5 - Fluff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of Day 3's AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost Benny, College Boy Sam, Communication, Protective Big Brother Dean

No one really believed Sam when he said he wasn’t interested in a relationship because he had a boyfriend. No, they’d never meet him. No, he wasn’t lying. They just wouldn’t believe.

Hell, Dean still didn’t believe him entirely, and he’d been there to see the messages appearing.

Once again, Sam called Dean and asked him to bring pizza. When Dean got there, he gave Sam a wary look. “If you tell me you’re having vampire symptoms or something, I’m taking the pizza and walking. That ghost story from last time still haunts me.”

“Actually, it still haunts me.”

“Wha… heh.” Dean chuckled. “But really, what’s going on?”

“Um… that ghost story. It’s haunting me.”

“Dude, you’re in college. You should be able to sleep without big brother tucking you in.”

“You love tucking me in and you know it.”

“Not the point. Ghosts aren’t real, Sammy.”

“Benny, ignore my asshole brother.”

“Benny? You named him?”

“No. I assume his mom did.”

And before Dean’s very astonished eyes, a marker floated out of the cup it was in and started writing on the giant whiteboard Sam had installed. “Dad picked the name, after his brother who was killed out fishing.”

Dean’s eyes widened and he stared at Sam. “Dude. What’s happening?”

“I told you. The ghost I was telling you about. I got him a whiteboard so he could leave messages anytime instead of waiting for enough steam to write on the mirror.”

“You’re living with a ghost.”

“Yep.”

“So… you want me to help you pack, find a new place? One that’s not haunted?”

“What? No! I like Benny!”

“Love you too, Sam.” Benny drew a heart next to the words.

Dean had, eventually, gotten used to both the ghost’s existence and Sam’s odd relationship with him. At first, Dean was worried about Sam never getting laid again, but Sam just laughed. “We’ve got a couple ways around that. Don’t worry about my sex life, that’s weird.”


	6. Day 6 - Curtain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Curtain Fic, Retired Sam, Retired Dean, Synthetic Blood

“Old” meant something different to hunters than it did to normal people. It meant something else entirely to vampires.

Sam had never expected to live to see 40. He had definitely never expected to see 50, even though between those two he and Dean had retired and settled into the Bunker for research and monitoring. The blowup between American hunters and the British Men of Letters had led the hunters to see the benefit of having a bit more communication – fewer cases of running into other hunters chasing the same leads, more leads getting handled because someone was putting together patterns that stretched across three decades and twelve states. They would never give up their independence, but the new People of Letters seemed to be working pretty well anyway.

Sam needed glasses now, and had days where he needed a cane to walk between his bedroom and the library thanks to arthritis, but his brain was as sharp as ever and he was still great at pulling together patterns or remembering obscure bits of lore. He was actually happier now than he’d been for a long time.

With the help of Max and Alicia Banes, Sam had started experimenting with magic. He’d also taken science classes over the internet, among others. Between magic and science, Sam had found a mostly-synthetic blood substitute that worked for Benny. Part of the formula involved a few drops of real blood, which Sam was perfectly happy to do – it was less blood than he had to sacrifice for other spells, after all, and it was for Benny.

Once that discovery was made, Benny started reaching out to other vampires. Most were true monsters, but there were a few who were interested in being able to live a somewhat normal life without hurting anyone. They’d formed their own network, and Sam and Benny’s relationship was hardly unique anymore.

Dean was rarely involved in hunting directly anymore. It was actually Dean’s choice to get out of fieldwork. They’d gotten a horrible call from a six-year-old girl that her dad hadn’t checked in from his hunt, and Dean took it to heart when he discovered that the six-year-old had been left in charge of her two-year-old brother. After he and Sam rescued the dad, Dean ripped him a new one about putting that kind of responsibility on a kid. The dad had said something about what else was he supposed to do, leave them with Dean? And Dean had responded that yes, that was a great idea. Since then, the Bunker had become a sort of Hunter’s Kids Day Care, run by Dean with Benny’s help. There were some permanent residents, whose parents had died on a hunt, and some come-and-go.

Sam had never expected to see 40. Now, on the other side of 50, he was almost believing he might live to see 80.


	7. Day 7 - Reveals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of the AU from Days 3 and 5.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ghost Benny, College Boy Sam, Ghost Cuddles, Bad Days

Sam had a really bad day at school. Thankfully, it was a rough draft, not a final grade, so there was time to fix the history paper his TA had ripped to shreds. The group project for his communication class, though, that was looking like it was going to be a disaster. No one in the group had even heard from Brady in two weeks, and Brady, of course, had all the work they’d already done. It was looking like they’d have to start over, and do a three-month project in less than two weeks. He’d nearly been run over by some asshole on a skateboard. Sam was 6’4”, and not a small guy, so he wasn’t buying the “whoops, didn’t see you” excuse. And then to top it all off, Castiel had stood him up for their review session for philosophy.

By the time he got home, Sam was exhausted. He’d tried to call Dean, but Dean wasn’t home. Sam kicked off his shoes and flopped on the couch to read the whiteboard. Benny spent most of the day coming up with sweet words of encouragement and love, so that Sam always came home to something to smile about.

It was helpful, but Sam was still somewhat down about the whole day. Castiel had finally texted him to apologize – he’d been kidnapped by his cousin Gabriel for some family thing he’d forgotten about. Which was fine, and he knew Cas’s family was important to him.

“Thanks for the messages, Benny. I love you too.”

One more message appeared in the small blank space. “Did you eat?”

Sam let out a giant sigh, but forced himself up to go to the refrigerator. There was some leftover chicken salad and carrots he could eat, which meant he didn’t have to cook anything. Once he had some food, he decided to erase the whiteboard and just go to bed. “Good night, Benny.”

As he settled under the blanket, Sam thought he could feel something warm. It wasn’t a change in temperature at all. More like an internal warmth, the kind of feeling he got when Benny had written something particularly sweet, or Dean had praised something Sam did. It soothed away the crap of the day and Sam fell asleep more easily than he’d expected to.

When he woke up, the whiteboard was still blank. That kind of stung a little, but only until he saw the marker floating toward it. He went to start the coffee while Benny wrote. When he came back, Benny was finished, the marker floating in midair. “Did you feel anything last night?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I did. I felt… I dunno. I felt loved.”

“Good.” Benny started drawing a picture. Sam watched, trying to figure out what was taking shape. A bed, a person in the bed… 

“Did you come hang out in bed with me all night?”

“Yes. Wasn’t sure if it would do anything, but I wanted to try. If I can make a marker write, I ought to be able to do something, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah, Benny. That was awesome.”

“Good. Might not be much on the board today, though. Tired from affecting the material world all night.”

“That’s all right, Benny. Rest up. I love you.”


End file.
